Chairman of the SALAI Holding, Ngairengbam Smarjit today said that the demand for Scheduled Tribe status for Meitei / Meetei is not a reasonable demand.

Speaking to the launching ceremony of KEDO’s Pop Corn stalls held at Khwiramband Keithel, Ngairangbam Samarjit said that Manipur is a kingdom with imperialistic character. The Meitei/ Meetei had come to a status of a civilized nation and going back to the status of ST status is nothing but sabotaging of the history of the nation state.

The Chairman of the SALAI Holding, Ngarengbam Samarjit while appreciating the member of Kangleipak Economic Development Organisaton (KEDO) further said that the Salai Holding will always stands for KEDO.

SALAI donated 500 plastic baskets and 100 handmade bamboo basket for collecting garbage in and around the Khwairamband Ima Keithel area. Samarjit said that those garbage collected will be again collected by them with payment of some tips to the KEDO volunteers so that they can recycle the garbage.

Imphal City Police Station, Officer in Charge Ingocha, who presided over the launching function of Pop Corn stall by the KEDO said that everyone should try to make the city clean. He said that people who come to the Khwairamband Keithel should follow the law of the land.

“All those who trade here should get proper license from the authority concern so that there is no obstacle in their business”, Ingocha said and appealed the KEDO to take permission of the stall open from the Imphal Municipal Corporation.

Rinku Khumukcham, Editor of Imphal Times has more than 15+ years in the field of Journalism. A seasoned editor, was a former editor of ISTV News. He resides in Keishamthong Elangbam Leikai, with his wife and parents. Rinku can be contacted at [email protected]

2 comments

The respected chairman is blissfully ignorant of the existence of Articles19(5) and 371(C), among others, of the Indian Constitution and because of this the hill valley divide in Manipur is legalised. Unless this Constitutional divide is removed the shrinking of arable land for indigenous Meitei cannot be stopped. The word scheduled tribe is a Constitutional term meaning indigenous group of people. The Supreme Court in its judgement in a SLP (CRL) no 10367, Kailash vs State of Maharashtra, dated 5th Jan 2011, equivocally stated that scheduled Tribes are indigenous people of India. Viewed from this perspective we Meitei are yet to be recognised as indigenous Yelhoumee. Can the chairman prevent outsiders from entering our Panchayats, Zilla Parishads and State Assembly. Jiribam could have been saved from outsiders had it been declared a ST seat long ago. Today many ACs are in the pipeline of Jiribam style silent demographic invasion. Thangmeiband, Sagolband, Wangkhei ACs are in the front line. Unless a collective political wisdom is invoked under relevant Articles of Indian Constitution before the NFR train reachesTupul and Imphal, the Meitei like a vanishing tribe or lost children of history walking from one spot of buried hope to the death rattle of another searching Constitutional safeguards on the wrong pages of our Constitution, shall be doomed in the wilderness of streets only. All indigenous people of Manipur except Meitei got Constitutional protection. Why not then for us? How long can we face this costly divide? Instead of basking in the reflected past glory we should strive for present and future.